#leave taylor kelly alone 2k23

[deliberatemisspelling]

I'm gonna say something extremely controversial (hi, we've met).

I love Taylor Kelly.

I love her.

I love her unabashed sexuality.

I love her drive for finding the truth (even when she does it wrong, even when it hurts people she loves.)

I love how fiercely she cares about her job.

I love her.

When I did school for a while I was a communications major and I ran 3 school papers and I have worked for an actual honest to God local newspaper and when I did those things I would have MURDERED A MAN for a cohort like Taylor Kelly. Someone who CARES about TELLING THE TRUTH. No matter how ugly or uncomfortable it is.

I have another controversial thing (shocker, I know): 911 is a good show, but it's a Fox procedural and it's copaganda, no matter how diverse the cast is or how liberal the storylines are.

There is a reason why the Journalist/reporter character is written the way Taylor Kelly is. You are supposed to uncritically side with the characters you love when Taylor does something (arguably, in the case of breaking the Jonah story) shady.

The narrative leads the viewer to automatically side with members of the 118, but I'm sorry, on-shift firefighters being high (even through no fault of their own) is a story (yes, ethically using the footage of Bobby would be fucked. That's why her editor said no, and yes, she did learn from that experience. She wanted to, and she wasn't allowed. Buck does that in his job every other episode.)

Taylor is RIGHT when she says the information about Jonah would have gotten out anyway. Oh, the poor woobie fire department wanted to break the story themselves for damage control 🥺🥺🥺. Boo hoo.

In the context we're shown she didn't use any information from the conversation prior in the episode that she, a seasoned reporter, would not have found on her own in half an hour of googling.

She didn't quote anyone. She had a name first, that's it. A name any other reporter would've gotten from land records or a neighbor or any other one of a dozen sources 20 minutes later, once on-scene. Reporters are supposed to break stories. It's their JOB. They aren't supposed to regurgitate press releases from the fire department like it's news.

Uncritically hating Taylor Kelly because shes Wrong For Buck (she is, that's okay) without considering the fact that public institutions that are paid for with tax dollars (like police and fire departments) SHOULD be critically analyzed is lazy, and there's whole other kettle of fish to talk about regarding hatred female characters paired with part of a popular m/m ship. (It used to be called Bashing, and it's so fucking boring y'all omg).

Taylor's arc is crafted to make the journalist, and journalism, and investigative reporting, look shady.

Listen to the voice-over at the end of the blackout episode! It's all about how, now that the blackout is over, the only violence and property damage still occurring is in the autonomous zone. It's not subtle.

The Fourth Estate is IMPORTANT and the current real world state of it is a SHAMBLES. There are serious problems with the state of journalism but there are serious problems with the state of public entities too, and the way characters that are members of the 118 are allowed to make mistakes (you know, like people) while the House is held up as a bastion of perfection while still being part of a problematic institution, but a character like Taylor, because she is a Journalist, is given NO QUARTER, is galling.

A reporter like Taylor Kelly is Worth Her Weight in GOLD. She's got some things to learn but she's young and she's hungry and she CARES.

I love Taylor Kelly.